1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a treatment apparatus and, in particular, to a treatment apparatus that subjects an object to be treated, such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate for an LCD, to a process such as washing.
2. Description of Related Art
An apparatus is generally used in the process of fabrication of a semiconductor device wherein, after an object to be treated such as a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate for an LCD (hereinafter referred to as a xe2x80x9cwaferxe2x80x9d) has been immersed sequentially in treatment vessels such as treatment tanks, each filled with a treatment liquid such as a chemical (ammonia water or hydrogen fluoride, by way of example) or a rinse liquid or the like, it is immersed in a rinse liquid to remove any particles adhering to the surfaces of the wafer and any heavy metals such as nickel (Ni) or chrome (Cr) or natural oxide films that have been attracted either chemically or physically thereto.
A plurality of chemical treatment tanks filled with various treatment liquids, such as chemicals, and a plurality of rinse treatment vessels filled with rinse liquids such as pure water are provided in this treatment apparatus together with other components such as a conveyor device for conveying the wafer with respect to these treatment tanks and a conveyor carriage to which is attached a wafer holder mechanism such as a wafer chuck. These treatment tanks, in other words, the plurality of chemical treatment tanks and the plurality of rinse treatment tanks, are disposed in a straight line along the direction of movement of the conveyor carriage with the attached wafer holder mechanism. Wafers are conveyed sequentially to predetermined chemical treatment tanks and rinse treatment tanks by the conveyor carriage with attached wafers holder mechanism; then the wafers are immersed in the treatment liquids by a transportation device that is disposed in close proximity to the treatment tanks, such as a transportation device comprising a wafer boat; and finally the wafers are immersed in the rinse liquids to remove any particles that are adhering to the surfaces of the wafers and any heavy metals such as Ni or Cr or natural oxide films that have been attracted either chemically or physically thereto. Alternatively, no wafers boat is used and the conveyor carriage with attached wafers holder mechanism is raised and lowered to immerse the wafer in the treatment liquids and then into the rinse liquids to remove any particles that are adhering to the surfaces of the wafers and any heavy metals such as Ni or Cr or natural oxide films that have been attracted either chemically or physically thereto.
In this type of prior-art treatment apparatus, the chemical treatment tanks and the rinse treatment tanks are disposed in a straight line parallel to the direction of movement of the conveyor carriage with attached wafer holder mechanism. This raises a problem in that entire treatment apparatus becomes long in the direction in which the object to be treated is conveyed, so that not only does the treatment apparatus become large, but also time is required for conveying the wafer to the treatment tanks, leading to a drop in the treatment efficiency.
The present invention was devised in the light of the above described problem and has as an object thereof the provision of a treatment apparatus that makes it possible to reduce the size of the apparatus and improve the treatment efficiency.
In order to achieve the above object, a treatment apparatus in accordance with the present invention comprises a plurality of treatment vessels disposed in mutual close proximity, for processing an object; a holder conveyor carriage for holding the object to convey the object into the plurality of treatment vessels, the holder conveyor carriage being movable along a conveyor path in a fixed direction of conveyance; and the plurality of treatment vessels being disposed in a direction across the direction of conveyance of the holder conveyor carriage.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a treatment apparatus comprising: a housing; a plurality of treatment vessels disposed in mutual close proximity within the housing, for processing an object; a holder conveyor carriage for holding the object to convey the object to the plurality of treatment vessels, the holder conveyor carriage being movable along a conveyor path in a fixed direction of conveyance within the housing; and the plurality of treatment vessels being disposed in a direction across the direction of conveyance of the holder conveyor carriage.
According to a further aspect of the invention, there is provided a treatment apparatus comprising: a housing; a conveyor section for conveying an object into and out of the housing; a plurality of treatment vessels disposed in mutual close proximity within the housing, for processing the object; a drying device provided within the housing, for drying said object; a holder conveyor carriage for holding the object and moving between the conveyor section and the treatment vessels along a conveyor path in a fixed direction of conveyance, to convey the object to the drying device and the plurality of treatment vessels; and the plurality of treatment vessels being disposed in a crossing direction across the direction of conveyance of the holder conveyor carriage.
The treatment apparatus of this invention, configured as described above, makes it possible to reduce the length of conveyance of the conveyor carriage and also cause the object, which has been conveyed by the conveyor carriage, into the treatment vessels by the transportation device, for processing. This therefore makes it possible to reduce the size of the apparatus and also improve the processing efficiency.
In addition, it is possible to transport the object into the above described plurality of treatment vessels by providing a holder device on the conveyor carriage that holds the object in such a manner as to be capable of freely expanding and contracting on the side of the plurality of treatment vessels. This makes it possible to transport the object into each of the treatment vessels by the conveyor device alone, without using a transportation device, which makes it possible to reduce the number of structural components and also reduce the size of the treatment apparatus even further and improve the treatment efficiency.